…HOW MANY HOSTAGES WERE KILLED DURING THE “STORMING” OF THE BUILDING BY RUSSIAN SPECIAL FORCES USING GAS EARLY IN THE MORNING ON OCTOBER 26

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Approximately 204. On October 28, two days after the “storming,” the website Utro.ru predicted: “The number of those deceased at the House of Culture at Dubrovka will reach 200 persons. At the present time, according to our sources, the toll has already reached 160.” An additional forty-five hostages were said to be desperately ill in the hospital, and doctors unable to do anything for them. As of mid-December, the Russian Ministry of Health reported that 129 hostages perished during the storming. Grani.ru, however, claims to have documented 136 deaths (not counting Olga Romanova) and has provided a list of 136 names to bolster its assertion. In addition, it pointed out on November 28 that sixty-eight hostages, all of whom it named, continue to remain “missing without trace.” As of mid-December, Grani.ru had not been able to unearth any new information on these sixty-eight. Its figures as of November 28 suggest that 204 hostages perished during the storming, almost precisely the same number (205) cited by Utro.ru on October 28. If Olga Romanova’s name was in fact included in the Utro.ru figures, then the two estimates match perfectly.